Denny Ryder was laid off from Caterpillar in late 2013, and left Decatur, his hometown, to work for a Caterpillar contractor in North Carolina. Ryder is shown during a return visit in front of the Caterpillar plant and Keen Transport, right. Longtime industrial city Decatur, Ill., had the country’s greatest unemployment rate reduction. But people leaving the workforce – moving away, retiring, no longer looking for jobs -- may be the cause, rather than economic expansion.
CREDIT: Kristen Schmid for the Wall Street Journal
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